Politically correct spider

Exactly one month ago, I wrote about the startling discovery of fanged frogs leaping from their watery homes to snag (and consume) low flying birds (see my September 29 post, “Frogs with fangs: just one more indication of how little we know of this world.”) And now, with still time for last minute modifications to your Halloween costume, we learn of the newly discovered vegetarian spider, part of this occasional series documenting just how little the human animal knows about our neighbors here on Planet Earth.

As reported recently from the science desk of the BBC, this obviously politically correct arachnid is the first and as yet only known of the 40,000 or so species of spider to resist sucking the innards of once living prey and, instead, dines on plant matter. With their home in Mexico and well into Central America the diminutive (5-6mm long) Bagheera kiplingi , a jumping spider, subsists on the leafy tips of an acacia plant. But while not a predator, the veggie spider has developed usual spidey skills to avoid becoming prey himself.

An especially aggressive ant species lives on the acacia, swarming to protect their home from any invasive pests and thereby protecting the acacia. In return, these ants have ready and for the most part uncontested access to the same unusually protein-rich plant matter which attracts the spider.

Villanova University’s Professor Robert Curry, one of the author’s of the paper which led to the news story, explains: “The spiders basically dodge the ants. The spiders live on the plants, but way out on the tips of the old leaves where the ants don’t spend a lot of time, because there isn’t any food on those leaves.” But when the spider gets hungry (this a species of arachnid with especially good eyesight) they carefully study the ants movements and jump (remember, jumping spider) through the ant gauntlet like Tobey Maguire in hot pursuit of Willem Dafoe (yes, Spider Man 1 was my favorite), snipping off a tasty leaf and gymnastically returning to one of the ant-free acacia sections to enjoy this well earned meal.

Adding insult to culinary injury, Bagheera occasionally goes off the veggie diet (as do most vegetarians I know) to enjoy a bit of ant larvae.